Only a quarter of new PPS numbers still active five years later
It has emerged that less than a quarter of foreign nationals who were assigned PPS numbers in 2007 had employment activity in Ireland in 2012.
The figure comes from an annual analysis of records of the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Social Protection and the CSO, based on foreign nationals who were allocated PPSNs during the ten-year period 2002-2012.
The Central Statistics Office reports that in 2007, 188,775 PPS numbers were issued to foreign nationals. But only 45,502 (24.1%) showed any employment activity of any kind in 2012.
PPS numbers are used by the Revenue, employers, the Department of Social Protection and the HSE to track individuals. That means more than 75% of the 2007 numbers had no PAYE employment or any engagement with the social welfare system of any kind.
Records also show a fall in PPS numbers issued. More than 215,000 PPS numbers were allocated to foreign nationals in 2007, but in 2012, this had dropped to just under 73,000.
